1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a novel method and apparatus for forming a box-shaped cover body for a product being covered, which consists of, for example, a plurality of steel sheets cut into a desired size and stacked in a superposed fashion, or the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In shipping a plurality of steel sheets cut into a desired size from an iron work factory, it has been customary that a cut sheet metal product, which consists of a plurality of steel sheets cut into a desired size and stacked in a superposed fashion is wrapped in a sheet of wrapping paper; a box-shaped cover body made of a metal sheet beforehand is fitted from above on the product packed in wrapping paper; applying a lower protective metal sheet to the under surface of the cut sheet metal product covered with a box-sheped cover body; and the cut sheet metal product covered with a box-shaped cover body and the lower protective metal plate are bound together by means of binding hoops.
In the conventional method, however, a number of box-shaped cover bodies must be prepared beforehand and kept in storage. This disadvantageously requires a large space for storage. Furthermore fitting a box-shaped cover body prepared beforehand on a cut sheet metal product wrapped in paper is cumbersome. A further disadvantage is in that, in order to facilitate the fitting of a box-shaped cover body on a cut sheet metal product, the inner size of the box-shaped cover body must be made larger to some extent than an outer size of the cut sheet metal product, resulting in the poor fit to the cut sheet metal product.